By Pastor Basil D’Souza
This is the season for you to believe God for your wildest dreams in Him to come to pass. As you stand in His presence, tell God about your wildest dreams. What is something in your heart that you want to come to pass this 2023? You have come to a time of prayer and fasting and as you come here this morning, you have been crying out to God and maybe you just want to take that one thing and thank God for it. Faith is thanking God in advance for what you are about to receive. Gratitude is saying thank you after you have received it. You stand here in faith this morning saying, “Thank you Jesus!”
There is an awakening. Something is beginning to stir within your hearts. Something is beginning to arise. Something is beginning to open up. With that, there is a new hope that is rising; a hope in God that is sure and steadfast and true. It is a hope in God that has cold-blooded confidence in God and HIs word saying, “God, you said something and it will come to pass.”
Hosea 2: 14-15 says, “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.” The dessert is a dry place, it is the wilderness. It is barren and there is nothing good there. But sometimes, the Lord allows you to go into those places so that your focus, your gaze and your attention is on Him and Him alone. There is no distraction at all. You come to this place and you are leaning only on Him, dependent on Him and drawing from Him alone. God wants to give it all back to you.
In Joshua 7, you hear about a man called Achan. He actually brought trouble upon Israel because God instructed him not to touch anything and burn everything when they conquer Jericho, but Achan took some of the goods and hid them. And when they started fighting the enemy, they lose. Joshua is asking God why this is happening and they find out what Achan did. They stone him in the Valley of Achor, the valley of trouble.
Whenever you look to the Valley of Achor, you think about trouble. It is doomed, just like Achan and his whole family. But in Hosea, God said He will transform the Valley of Trouble into a Gateway of Hope. So in spite of all the trouble you are going through, you should hope for the best. Your trouble will actually open the door of hope. God is just turning it around completely. Because you have held on, persevered and pressed on, He will take the very trouble that has pulled you down and disappointed you and transform it into a gateway of hope.
The Lord wants you to rise up and look at Him in a new way. When things go wrong, you will ask yourself what do you actually believe. When things go wrong, it does not change the nature and character of God. He is still good. He is still kind. You may not know why something went wrong but know that your Lord has not changed. For you to latch on to that, you must come into a season where God is going to turn up and show you off.
As you come through this time, God wants to stir up hope in your life like never before.
Year of recovery and redemption
Year of restructuring
Year of awakening and acceleration
Year of unprecedented harvest
Year of discipleship
God wants you to receive back what you have lost. 2020 came upon you and you were not ready for it. You have lost materially, financially, physically, and spiritually. Take note of all the things you have lost. Put it before you and get it back. God is also correcting a pst wrong. Somebody has wronged you and God wants to correct it. He also wants to give you access to something you have never had. In this year of recovery, revival is designed to start in families. This is a family church. A time is coming when you will not only see families but clans.
When you think things are falling apart, they are actually falling in place. There is a Mexican proverb that says, “They thought they buried us but they actually planted us.” When a seed is taken and put into the ground, it’s all dark around them and you do not really know if it will grow. But suddenly, it begins to burst forth. Some feel that a circumstance or situation is falling apart, but God is actually bringing them together. You may be feeling that stuff are not happening but God is on your case and is turning things around.